Do you harbor the fear that one of these days the people you work with will realize that you are not REALLY as good as they think you are? That you are in a higher-level job than you are really capable of performing? There are many very bright, competent, well-employed, HIGHLY EFFECTIVE people who suffer from some form of fraud syndrome. The operant word here is "suffer." From the people I have coached, I have learned that every person's fraud syndrome is unique, so there is no single one-size-fits-all antidote for it. But here are some strategies that seem to apply broadly.

1. It is the nature of high-level work that you do not always feel completely on top of it. Whether it is the sheer volume of work you are managing, the sheer weight of the responsibility, or the sheer complexity of the challenges you keep in your head, if you are working to capacity, you will sometimes feel "in over your head."

2. Learn to be OKAY with that feeling. It is part of the landscape you live in now.

3. Trust the sequence of events that led you to this position, the people who believed in you along the way, the hard work you did at every step, and the personal challenges you have come through. It is no accident you are where you are.

4. Take a look at what your fraud syndrome protects you from. What is the payoff for stressing about this? For some people, it is a distraction from something else that is going on. I last experienced it at full throttle when I was a systems analyst. Stressing about my competence was actually more bearable than the underlying truth I eventually had to confront: I did not want to do systems work any more - and I had no idea what else I would do. Feeling overwhelmed by all the new software I had to learn was unpleasant, but facing my unknown future was absolutely terrifying.

5. You always, always, always have choice. If the stress of being in this field at this level is not sustainable for you at this time in your life, figure out what needs to change, and change it. Take a job at another level, renegotiate your workload, or change fields. I do not mean to be cavalier about these kinds of changes - they are huge, life-changing transitions. But isn't that perhaps just what is called for? And if you do not want to leave the field, commit to learning how to do the work in a more sustainable way.

6. Be sure you have other things in your life to counterbalance the stressors. It is a simple concept, I know, but you would not believe the number of people who WORK all the time, every day, year in and year out, at the office and not at the office, constantly. Or maybe you would believe it . . .! If you are deeply depleted, it is pretty impossible to feel good about yourself or to enjoy your life.

Copyright 2004, Sharon Teitelbaum.